Damon West

I was able to transform myself from that low life guy that got sentenced to life in prison to being a man of purpose and a man that saw himself

as the voice of this coffee bean message that Muhammad gave me.

And it was hard, man.

Prison was hard.

The first two weeks of fighting the white gangs, after that it's the black gangs.

But sports, it's back to sports.

On the rec yard in prison is where I finally earned the respect to exist inside that world.

And the reason why I went to play sports to do it, I was actually fighting the black gangs at that point.

I show up on the basketball court where no white guys are allowed, right?

But I show up there and play basketball for a week with these guys because I know, Nick, that in America, sports is the great uniter.

You know, you and I were just chopping it up about college football.

Sports is the great uniter.

Sports brings people together like nothing else can.

Not even religion will bring us Americans together like sports because we can self-segregate religions in America, and we do.

But sports is the place where we all come together, man.

That's where all the big melting pot is.

And here's what I was thinking as I went to the rec yard that week to play some basketball.

Before there was Martin Luther King Jr., there was Jackie Robinson.

Before you integrated lunch counters in the South, you integrated locker rooms.

I knew sports would be the thing that did it for me.